This weekend was the last weekend I spent with my brother before he had to leave for bootcamp. Out of the entire weekend, I think Sunday was the most interesting, so I'll keep this recap focused on that day. [For those of you who come here strictly for knitting content, you will find none in this post.]
It started off with Gabe, Lauren, my brother Dave and I all heading to the State Aquarium. They recently overhauled the whole thing, renaming it the Adventure Aquarium. New exhibits included hippos, penguins, seals and many other things. Some pics [As always click to enlarge]:
Personally, while the aquarium was fun, I enjoyed our next destination even more. We took a guided tour of the USS New Jersey (BB62), which is not only the largest Battleship built but also the most decorated.
Walking up, we got a good view of the harpoons, one of the weapon systems onboard the battleship. (The harpoons are the red things you see in the middle of the picture.)
The "Big Guns" or what are actually 16 inch rifles are staggering. They're called 16 inch rifles because the projectile that comes out of them is 16 inches in circumference.
A view of them from one of the upper decks:
A view looking up at them. The barrel of the guns goes into the turrent, a room where they oversee the loading of them.
Our guide Joe standing right under the first set of rifles. You can get a great sense of how gigantic they are in this photo:
And our guide Joe standing next to one of the projectile. They're as tall as a person!
Another onboard weapons system on the USS New Jersey is the tomahawks. I was floored to learn how technologically advanced this weapons system is. From where the USS New Jersey sits (On the Delaware River between Camden, NJ and Philadelphia, PA) the tomahawks could take out Dallas Texas. Not only can they hit a target halfway across the country, but they can be programmed for another target on their way. The example that our tour guide gave us was that before reaching Dallas, the missile could take a detour, hit Atlanta, drop mini bombs and take out the airport there before heading to it's final destination. That's crazy! With the USS New Jersey on the East Coast, and the USS Missouri on the West Coast, using the Tomahawks, we can actually hit anywhere in the continental United States! I had no idea our weapons were that advanced.
The USS New Jersey has two boats on it. The first one is the admiral's boat, which he could use for whatever he pleased while on board:
The second, a whaling boat, which was used during the wars that the USS New Jersey was in to follow the coastline to get enemy coordinates.
This is a painting that was inside one of the turrents, which is where they oversee the loading of the big guns:
And this is a plaque on board the ship. The inscription was written on one of the doors to the battleship by an unknown person when in 1999 she was decommissioned and put to rest.
The history of the ship was just fascinating. She was in four wars, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. In the entire time that she was at war, there was only one combat fatality, during the Korean War. She was also supposed to be the ship that the Japanese met on to surrender, however after the initial plans were laid, the President, who was from Missouri and whose daughter had christened the USS Missouri changed the plans, giving the USS Missouri that honor. That's ok though! We'll let the Missouri have that. After all the USS New Jersey is not only the longest battleship ever built, and the most decorated Battleship in the Navy's History, but we also had the distinct pleasure of bringing home over 1000 troops from the Japanese War!
Labels: Misc.
